Diamond's MX300 doesn't just throw some serious hardware and software support into a box and say "It's party time!" (Said in either a Ted Kennedy Massachusetts accent, or a Bill Clinton Southern Drawl, take your pick folks) It also adds a sweet little bundle and an interesting add-on port for an upcoming MX300 daughtercard.
The upcoming daughtercard adds some specific features to the basic MX300, including full Dolby Digital 5.1 channel support and a digital In/Out port known commonly as an S/PDIF port.
This is important for a couple of reasons. First, the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel support that the daughtercard provides fully reproduces the newest surround sound format, which is standard fare on most, if not all, DVD movies (the X-rated DVDs don't have it, but we wouldn't know anything about those….)
It's important to remember though that the Dolby Digital 5.1 channel support of the MX300 is actually analog instead of the true digital form that high-end audio receivers and DVD players pound out. The S/PDIF port on the MX300 daughtercard CAN relay a true digital signal to a Dolby Digital equipped home theater system via the system's S/PDIF IN port. That's not a likely configuration though, since most people that paid the extra costs for a home theatre and digital receiver went ahead and bought a DVD player at the same time, which negates the need for a PC DVD-ROM hook up.
When we actually receive a daughtercard to test, we'll report on whether there's a discernable audio quality loss by having the analog-only Dolby Digital output enabled on a "PC Home Theater" (6 speakers and the MX300) versus the output on the same speakers via a true high-end Sony dolby digtal equipped receiver and DVD player.
Regardless of the slight differences, it's nice to see that Diamond thought so much of the "Movie on a PC" crowd to implement an easy upgrade that nets the finest surround sound format available on a PC.
